42. The Pocket Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland; containing the Defcent and prefent State of every Noble Family; with the extinct, forfeited, and dormant Tulles of the Three Kingdoms. Alfo, general and particular Indexes; with the Arms emblazoned, and Mottoes tranflated. A new Edition. By B. Longmate. 2 vols. 12mo. Baldwin, &c. THE name of LONGMATE, as con nected either with Peerage or Heraldry, has an hereditary claim to attention; and the prefent work bears teftimony to the industry and talents of the Compiler. Some ufeful preliminary articles are prefixed on the Infiitution and Manner of creating Peers; the Progrefs and Increase of Baronial Honours in England; the English and Irish Dignities conferred by each Sovereign; Degrees of Nobility; Privileges of Peers of Great Britain; Rules of Precedence; the Year of the Reign of the Sovereigns of England corresponding with the Year of Chrift; Genealogical Descent of his Majetty from Egbert, &c. &c. It is creditable to the age, that laborious refearches of this defcription have been fo favourably received as to require repeated Editions. The prefent work is corrected to Feb. 21, 1808. One fall inaccuracy might have been remedied in a work where Precedence is important, the Bishops fhould have been placed in their proper feries. 43. Illuftrations of Shakspeare, and of antient Manners; with Differtations on the Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare; on the Collection of popular Tales intituled Gefta Romanorum; and on the English Morris Dance. By Francis Douce. The Engravings on Wood by J. Berryman. 2 vols. large 8vo. Longman. 1807. IF any proof were required of the ef timation in which the Plays of Shakfpeare are held by the Publick, it might be obtained through the medium of his Commentators, who are numerous beyond comparifon, except in the fin gle inftance of the Holy Scriptures. Perhaps no fubject frequently dilated on has produced fo little advantage as the notes on Shakspeare's text. Blunders and mifapprehenfions, with filly conjectures, conftitute the majority of them, taken in the aggregate. Fully convinced of the truth of this unfortnnate circumftance, and anxious to obtain. real information, the Literary World are led to hail the appearance of each new illuftration, without always confidering whether the Author is competent to the talk of explaining obfolete words, remote cuftoms and allufions, which mutt be the province of a complete Antiquary, and not that of a mere writer of finooth fentences, founded on fuperficial obfervation of the difficult paffage; neither of the real learned man, who, wedded to the antient Claflicks, thinks his native language beneath study or ufe beyond exprefsing the cominon wants of life. Sound judgment, a complete knowledge of the English tongue in the reigns betweeen Henry VIII. and' James I. and fome conception of the manners of fill more reinote times, added to a good education, embellished with the dead languages,-fuch are the qualifications required to illuftrate Shakipeare. Thofe, if we are not greatly miflaken, are poffeffed by Mr. Douce; from whole work, now before us, we fhall endeavour to establish our opinion. That gentleman obferves, in his Preface, "The practice and alfo the neceffity of explaining the writings of Shakspeare former Commentators, that no other apohave already been fo ably defended by logy on the part of thofe who may elect to perfevere in this kind of labour feems to be neceffary than with regard to the qualifications of the writer. But as no one in this cafe perhaps ever thought, or 'at leaft fhould think, himself incompetent to the talk affumed of inftructing or amufing others, it may be as well, on the prefent occafion, to wave altogether such - a common-place intrusion on the reader's time. It is enough to ftate that accident had given birth to a confiderable portion of the following pages, and that defign fupplied the reft. The late Mr. Steevens had already, in a manner too careless for his own reputation, and abundantly too favourable for his friend, prefented to public view fuch of the Author's remarks ufe and confideration of that able Critick. as were folely put together for the private The former with of their Compiler has, with the prefent opportunity, been ac complished; that is, fome of them withdrawn, and others, it is hoped, rendered lefs exceptionable." Mr. Mr. Donce divides the readers of Shakspeare into three classes: the firf referring to the notes as they read; the fecond read the text through, and then confult the commentator; and the third reject the explanations and conjectures in toto. Of thofe he confiders the fecond the moft rational. "The laft, with all their affectation, are probably the leaft learned, but will undoubtedly remain fo; and it may be justly remarked on this occafion, in the language of the Writer who has beft illuftrated the principles of tafte, that "the pride of fcience is always meek and humble, compared with the pride of ignorance." He who at this day can entirely comprehend the writings of Shakspeare without the aid of a comment, and frequently of laborious illuftration, may be faid to poffefs a degree of infpiration almoft commenfurate with that of the great Bard himfelf. Mr. Steevens has indeed fummed up every neceffary argument in his affertion, that, "if Shakspeare is worth reading, he is worth explaining; and the refearches ufed for fo valuable and elegant a purpofe merit the thanks of Genius and Candour, not the fatire of Prejudice and Ignorance." Perfectly coinciding with Mr. D. and including the illuftrations of the four gentlemen mentioned by him in our minority of good Commentators, we transcribe the following paragraph of the Preface with pleafure. "The indefatigable exertions of Meffeurs Steevens, Malone, Tyrwhitt, and Mafon, will ever be duly appreciated by the true and zealous admirers of Shakfpeare's pages. If the name of a celebrated Critick and Moralift be not included on this occafion, it is because he was certainly unskilled in the knowledge of obfolete cuftoms and expreffions. His explanatory notes, therefore, are, generally Ipeaking, the moft controvertible of any; but no future Editor will difcharge his duty to the Publick who fhall omit a fingle fentence of this Writer's mafterly Preface, or of his found and tafteful characters of the Plays of Shakspeare." The Author justly remarks, that all attempts at perfection in this purfuit must be fruitless, through the difficulty of afcertaining where materials are to be found which will ferve to folve doubts, as they may be cafually but not regularly obtained: he has therefore declared, p. ix, that "One defign of these volumes has been to augment the knowledge of our popular cuftoms and antiquities; in which refpect alone the Writings of Shakspeare have fuggefted better hints, and furnished ampler materials, than thofe of any one befides. Other digreffions too have been introduced, as it was conceived that they might operate in diminishing that tedium which usually refults from an attention to matters purely critical; and that whilft there was almoft a certainty of fupplying fome amufement, there might even be a chance of conveying inftruction. Sometimes there has been a neceffity for ftepping-in between two contending Criticks; and for fhewing, as in the cafe of many other difputes, that both parties are in the wrong." Mr. D. feems to think fome excufe necefsary for quoting pafsages from what Mr. Steevens called "books too meau to be formally quoted." In our opinion, no fuch excufe is required; when antient manners can in no other way be illuftrated, it would be abfurd indeed to reject defireable information because it happens to be furrounded by contemptible authorship. Belides, Mr. Steevens himself certainly used those defpifed works with great advantage; a circumftance which he feems to have forgotten. Mr. D. adds: "With respect to what is often abfurdly denominated black-letter learning, the tafte which prevails in the present times for this fort of reading, wherever true scholarship and a laudable curiofity. are found united, will afford the beft reply to the hypercriticisms and impotent farcafms of thofe who, having from indolence or ignorance neglected to cultivate fo rich a field of knowledge, exert the. whole of their endeavours to depreciate its value. Are the earlier labours of our countrymen, and efpecially the copious ftores of information that enriched the long and flourishing reign of Elizabeth, to be rejected because they are recorded in a particular typography?" It is impofsible that à reader poffeffed of common fenfe fhould do otherwife than reply in the negative to the above pertinent query; and we are much mistaken if it has not fome effect even on the perfons aimed at by it. Mr. Douce obviates the complaints of fome Criticks, who afsert that Shakfpeare has had too many Commenta tors, by the observation of another, that, if every line of Shakspeare's Plays were accompanied with a comment, every intelligent Reader would be indebted to the induftry of him who produced it." Shakspeare indeed is not more obfcure than contempo rary Writers; but he is certainly much better worth illustrating. "It might be thought that in the following pages exemplifications of the fenfes of words have been fometimes unneceffarily introduced where others had already been given; but this has only been done where the new ones were deemed of greater force and utility than the others, or where they were fuppofed to be really and intrinsically curious. Some of the notes will require that the whole of others' which they advert to fhould be examined in Mr. Steevens's edition; but thefe were not reprinted, as they would have occupied a space much too unreafonable." Befides this criticifi, the Author in troduces a particular and diferiminative notice of the character of each Clown or Fool at the end of the play in which they appear, as thofe perfonages are fometimes of confiderable importance in the plot. He farther obferves, the notes; and fuch will occur to "The differtations which accompany this work will, it is hoped, not be found mifplaced, nor altogether uninterefting. The fubject of the first of them, though often introduced into former notes on the Plays of Shakspeare and other Dramatic Writers, had been but partially and im-peare, perfectly illuftrated. The Gefia Romanorum, to which The Merchant of Venice has been fo much indebted for the conftruction of its ftory, had, it is true, been already differted on by Mr. Warton with his accustomed elegance; but it will be found that he had by no means exhausted the fubject. The Morris dance, fo frequently alluded to in our old plays, feemed to require and deferve additional researches." Mr. Douce next expreffes a wish that future Editors may not attempt conjectural amendments of Shakspeare's text, except when the error is really typographical; this with is dupported by citing the notes on Milton by Dr. Bentley, which fully demonftrate the folly of good scholars, without the qualifications we have already pointed out, undertaking to explain obfolete words, and paffages obfcured by the changes of the English language alone. He queries whether, in the above cafe, it would not be better to concentrate all that has been faid on particular paffages, "or even to reduce it to a new form, to be referred to whenever neceffary. Although the ftrict reftitution of the old orthography is not meant to be infilled on, nor would indeed accommodate the geneality of readers, there are many inflances in which it fhould be stated in GENT. MAG. April, 1808. Mr. Steevens's laft edition of Shak publifhed by himself in 1793, in 15 vols. 8vo, was preferred in compiling the work now under confideration, "to which the pages cited` refer;" but the acts and feenes of the plays are fpecified, to facilitate a reference to other editions. (To be continued.) 44. The Hiftory of Market-Harborough, "On vent'rous wing in queft of FAME Igo, Printed by the Author; and fold in Lon- The more effential parts of the Hif cuments M cuments collected by Mr. Nichols in his magnum opus; enlarged, as far as relates to modern times, by the local fituation of Mr. Harrod, who, as a. native of Harborough, recognizes the fcenes of "boyith days," and dwells with pleasure on recent improvements; nor, as a confcientious, independent man, does he fcruple to point out the exifting nuisances and imperfections. "I affure my Readers that neither pains nor expence have been spared to render this work as entertaining as the subject will admit; for, as mere antiqua rian matter might to fome prove dry, I have grafted many anecdotes upon it, and frequently departed alfo from the gravity with which fuch fubjects are ufually treated-in short, I have journeyed many a mile in fearch of materials, panting after Fame with the ardour of a Poet labouring for Immortality. What kind of reception my book will meet with is a fecret of which I am not yet in poffeffion; but fhall, no doubt, very foon, as there are but a few hours between me and criticifm." Preface. "Harborough is a very neat well-built town, crowned by THE ELMS, the muchenvied refidence of W. F. Major, Efq.; confifting chiefly of one principal street, 560 yards in length, on a gentle declivity, the fall of ground in that space being 24 feet. It is feated on the banks of the river Welland, which takes its rife from a spring under the parfonage-houfe at Sibbertoft, and feeds two or three ponds in the garden, dividing the counties of Leicester and Northampton. From the fpirit of building in the laft 20 years it has been confiderably improved, not forgetting the Workhoufe, which is very much enlarged; a very extenfive Brewery has been erected by Mr. Smith on the South edge of the river: we had alfo to boast of, till very lately, an elegant Carpet Manufactory. Several good houfes have been built near the town, the principal of which is the neat refidence of P. O. Adams, Efq. on the left as you enter the town from Leicester. - On the bridge are placed two Hydra-headed obftacles for preventing carriages paffing over it in the time of low water; they certainly do answer that purpose, but have alfo the bad property of affrighting horfes, and putting their riders in bodily fear; for I have feen many inftances of it in our rofy-faced farmers fpurring their proud courfers in vain to pass the bridge, on their returning home from market, infpired with wine or tiler liquors." Surely thefe obftacles might be converted into more familiar objects, fuch as a gate, &c.--On the foot-path of the pleasanteft walk near the town, on the road to Kettering, the pofts and rails erected thereon are fo placed that, to use the language of the Pfalmift, thofe who have eaten and worshiped' have no chance of entering, but muft walk on the highway, though they be choaked with duft." al Philip Earl of Harborough, for whom the Author devoutly prays, has fince paid the debt of Nature(LXXVII.H481), A copious lift is given of perfons buried in the cemetery of St. Mary in Arden; and an Epitaph, intended for the Author's "worthy Parents." "WILLIAM HARROD, Printer, died the 4th day of December, 1805, who is placed over him, died Auguft 27th, 1806, aged 83. Death has not deprived my Father of the love of his Wife; for, the very fame Earth which lay heavy, upon him, now lieth upon her. Sic Eo, sic Ibis, sic Imus, Ibitis, Ibunt. penned this Memorial." "In this cemetery are the remains of the late Mr. Smith, a baker, of this place, who died 1801, aged 100, for whom there is no memorial. He spent much of his time on the banks of the Welland, and ufed to boaft of his never lofing a good fish, owing to the uncommon ftrength of his tackle. Some years ago the Welland was well stocked with pike, perch, chub, roach, dace, gudgeon, and cels, equal to any in the kingdom; but now, alas! not only the fish are choaked, but the river alfo! for its waters are fhallow, and fo overgrown with rushes as, in moft parts of it, to be inftabilis tellus, innabilis unda." A brief account is fubjoined of remarkable feats and towns in the vici nity; amongft which, thofe of Holt, Gumley, Dingley, Kelmarth, Langton, &c. are particularly diftinguifhed. "Dingley is a pleafant village, feated on a hill, about two miles from Harborough, in which are a few good houses, the principal of which is the Hall, the refidence of J. P. Hungerford, Efq. in a park well ftored with game: this very refpectable Gentleman, it is well known, reprefented the county of Leicester in feveral parliaments. In the church is a very handsome altar-piece, by Turner, of our Saviour breaking bread. An organ has lately been erected in this church, which, I am informed, was built by the 1 prefent prefent very worthy and ingenious Rector. On a neat mural monument in the South aile is an elegant Latin infeription, informing the few who can read it that it is erected to the memory of the late Rev. Edward Griffin, rector of Dingley and Tormarton, Gloucestershire. He was a ftrenuous advocate of the Chriftian Religion, which thone out in all his actions; a man of erudition; a fociable and cheer ful friend and companion; and admired for a moft pleafing urbanity of manners. He was fnatched away by a lingering illnefs, to the great grief of his relatives and a numerous acquaintance, in 1777, aged 56," "The village of Gumley is pleafantly 'fituated near to the Union Canal. Gumley Hall belongs to Jofeph Cradock, Efq. It is unfinished; but there are fome good rooms in it, particularly a library, which contains many very valuable editions of the Clafficks. Gumley has long been famous for its fox-earths. Lord Spencer and Mr. Meynell ufed frequently to hunt here; but thefe, hunts of late years have changed their mafters. Mr. Meynell firft gave up the Quorndon hounds to Lord Sefton, then to Lord Foley. Mr. Ashton Smith is now their mafter." "Kelmarsh, the feat of the late William Hanbury, Efq. is fituated on the turnpike-road, about ten miles on this fide Northampton, and feven from Harborough; the houfe is built of brick, ornamented with ftone, with two wings; the drawing-room or faleon is very large on the Weft front, and is fitted up in a moft elegant ftyle; the view from it commands a fine piece of water; the library contains many valuable books, and fome curious antiques; the gardens, with pinery and greenhouse, are. very extenfive; the grounds are well laid out; the whole forming a very commodious and handfome country refidence." When this volume comes to a fecond edition, we recommend to Mr. Harrod to draw his pen over a few flippant reflections; which may well be fpared, without any lofs to his own fame, or the regret of his readers. Medical Literature; and we perfectly agree with the ingenions and fcientific Author, that, "if health is a bleffing, a regular and clear arrangement of the vafi nafs of materials that afford inftruction for its prefervation or restorawhole of the human race must be intion will be a defideratum in which the terefted." We have no hesitation in faying that Mr. Royston is as likely to fill up this grand outline, with as much ability and skill, both of manner and matter, as any of the medical tribe; for his "Obfervations" are given with. clearnefs, energy, and an obvious intention of which is, as he informs knowledge of his fubject; the great us, "to compofe a Catalogue raifonnée of its Medical Works, beginning with the earlieft printed books, and ending with the year 1800; and, by a fcienti fic clafsification of thefe works, with an analytical arrangement of the materials which they contain, to furnish a comprehenfive concordance of theoretical and practical knowledge. the end of his Obfervations, the whole of which we unrefervedly recommend, the Author invites the communications of the liberal and learned by an addrefs which, in juftice to him, and in the hope of afsifting his defign, we fhall prefent in his own words. At "To men fo well informed as those of the medical profeffion of the British Empire it feems unneceffary to mention the difficulties encountered, and the time and labour required, in compiling a moderately correct Bibliotheca of its Medical Books; or to point out any particular objects of enquiry. Anxious, however, to make the Bibliographia Medicina Britan nice worthy a fubject fo interefting to the Medical Faculty, Mr. Royston requests that thofe gentlemen who are difpofed to affift his defign will direct a part of their enquiries to the early times of Medical Hiftery in this country, comprehending, perhaps, all that period between the landing of the Romans and the founding of the College of Phyficians in London; to Thefes written by Englishmen at Foreign Univerfities foon after the revival of Lite 45. Obfervations on the Rife and Progress of the Medical Art in the British Em-rature; to scarce books and MSS.; to the pire; containing Remarks on Medical Literature, and a View of a Bibliogra phia Medicinæ Britannicæ. By William Royston, Efq. Apothecary Extraordinary to his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence. 8vo. Callow. THIS is a very elegant and interesting little treatife, giving us the profpecus of an important defideratum in firft appearance of particular difeafes in tices of profeffional men, whofe history Great Britain; and to biographical nohas efcaped the attention, or has not fallen within the plan, of Freind and Aikin. Convinced that a Bibliographia Medicina Britonnice is a NATIONAL WORK, in which every member of the Medical Faculty of the British Empire is interested, not only on the principle of fcientific |